Comms and Advice
by BonesBird
Summary: Erika is asked for advice on how she advanced through Starfleet. Hint of SassCaptains.


**And another one moved over from AO3. This is set a month or two before the beginning of the Romulan War in 2156 (a little over a year after "Terra Prime")**

**Shin xx**

* * *

There hadn't been all that many reasons for Erika to sit in _Enterprise_'s mess hall over the last two years. Generally when she was on this ship, she was in meetings or briefings, or she'd be stealing a few private moments with Jonathan. It was always that way, and it had been since _Columbia_ had launched more than 18 months earlier. While _Columbia_ was under repair, her crew was spending time on _Enterprise_ so as not to overtax their damaged girl. So she sat in the corner quietly and watched the two crews socialise together. One of her favourite hobbies had always been people watching.

The amount of time she got to watch these days was lowered by her position, everyone wanted to talk to the Captain, everyone wanted her opinion, so it was rare that she was left alone as much as she liked. She was still in her own little world when she became aware of someone approaching her table. She smiled as ensign Hoshi Sato stopped beside her and motioned to the seat opposite her. "Is this seat taken, Captain?" She asked with just a hint of nervousness. All Erika did was nod and motion to the empty chair. Hoshi smiled as she took the seat, then looked to Erika with an excited look. "Trip told me you worked on the first UT. Is that true?"

"Yeah, that was almost twenty years ago." She shook her head with a smile before thinking about it. "I'm sure you've improved it far beyond my original design." She looked back to Hoshi with a grin. She was thankful that for once she was being asked about a part of her career she had truly enjoyed. More often than not she was asked about trivial things or things she had never been interested in. Her early career was something she was proud of, the UT team was before she had technically even graduated, at least the first time. Then again, a few years later, during the NX Programme, where she had completed the design she'd originally thought up.

Hoshi however just shrugged and shook her head. "Mostly I've just added languages and updated the subroutines to handle more and more information. It was sometimes hard to get them right."

"It was hard enough when there were only a handful of languages, most of them from Earth." Erika grinned again. She'd hoped to speak to Hoshi about the development of the UT for some time, but had never found the spare time before. "Jonathan and I were talking about the success of the UT a few days ago. He was also telling me I had a challenger for my language title." She laughed, hoping the gentle teasing would put Hoshi a little more at ease. Sure enough her shoulders relaxed after a minute and returned the smile.

"Adding languages now is getting easier. The more languages we discover the more commonalities we find." Hoshi held a PADD out to Erika with a smile. "I didn't know if you'd seen the latest subroutines and dictionary, so I brought the details along. Just in case I saw you." Hoshi said quietly, and once again Erika smiled. Thinking that it was actually quite a sweet thing that Hoshi had done for her.

"Thanks. This'll give me something to read through tonight." She trailed off, wondering if there was anything else Hoshi had wanted to talk about, or if it had all been about her experience with UT. She waited a few minutes more, then she felt it might be best to ask. "Is there something else you wanted to talk about, ensign?"

"It's more something I'm curious about." Hoshi started, a mischievous look in her eyes. "I've been told how hard it is for those in communications to advance in Starfleet. But you were always a comm specialist, and now you command an NX ship. How did you do it?"

Erika took a sip of her drink and leant back in the chair. That was not a question she'd ever been asked before. How she had come to be in her position would basically mean she needed to explain her entire career. Maybe she could keep some of it short, or just find a better way about it. She also made a promise to herself not to drop names. "Well, mostly it comes from being the best at what I did for a relatively long time. I was the top of the field for more than 10 years." She shrugged and tried to think of a better way to put the rest. "The fact I was the primary comm officer for the warp 5 project for the best part of ten years, on a team full of pilots and engineers, none of whom thought that of comms as being important until there was a test is probably a large part of it." She laughed a little, putting herself back in that hangar with those people. "Sometimes I think that Forrest only sponsored and advocated for me to be given _Columbia_ after AG died as some sort of strange acknowledgement of my years of service with four asshole pilots."

"Wasn't the Captain a pilot on the Warp 5 team?" Hoshi asked with a confused look. Erika's relationship with Jonathan was a bit of an open secret among the NX crews, so maybe Hoshi's confusion about her choice of descriptor for the pilots was understandable.

"If you'd known him back then you'd understand. But seriously, Hoshi. The only way to get ahead when you're a comms specialist is to work your butt off and ensure that your input isn't overlooked." She knew, both from rumours and experience, that comm officers not being given fair credit was a chronic problem in Starfleet. She had had to teach the NX pilots that it was unacceptable many years earlier, so at least she could be certain that Jon would always give Hoshi fair credit. It worried her about others in the fleet, though. "Sometimes the arrogant assholes that populate certain parts of the fleet will try to take your credit." The best advice she could ever give to someone in the communications specialty was to keep on your toes. It didn't matter how close and friendly you were, people would use you as a silent partner, and you had to make sure your voice was heard. She watched Hoshi as she thought through and processed the information Erika was giving her, then as she gently nodded and opened her mouth to speak. Unfortunately before she got chance, Erika's attention was pulled aside.

"Erika, Gardner's on the Comm." She looked round to see Jonathan leaning out of the doorway to his private dining room. She sighed heavily as she got up, already annoyed at the knowledge she was going to have to deal with the administrative issues that came with being a fleet captain. Before she walked away she stopped by the table and mentally switched to speaking Vulcan, intending to keep the last pieces of advice as private as she could.

"When I say make sure, I mean it. Captain's aren't always above marginalising the involvement of junior officers, and comm officers are easy to do that with. But you should be pretty safe with Jon." She grinned and tapped the table, stopping again when Hoshi reached out and grabbed her arm. Replying also in Vulcan.

"How do you know that Captain won't?" She asked, and it was obvious that now Hoshi was thinking, she wanted to make sure she followed the older woman's advice. She knew that Hoshi would be fine with Jonathan, however, because they'd had their own experiences with it.

"Because I knocked that thinking out of him a decade ago." She grinned, and this time she did turn away, facing Jonathan's slightly confused look. She just shook her head at him, then paused in the doorway to the private room and looked back in the direction of Hoshi. It was clear she was now lost in thought, and the thing that Erika hoped most was that her advice was appreciated. It wasn't easy for communications specialists in Starfleet, but they were all beginning to learn tricks of the trade to even out the opportunities, and if Hoshi gave her advice to one other person, that would be enough for her to say she had done her duty.


End file.
